These Still Black Waters

Finished October 6

These Still Black Waters by Christina McDonald

This is the first book in a series featuring police officer Jess Lambert. Some of the story is from Jess's point of view. She is recently returned to work and detective work after an automobile accident that took the life of her daughter Isla and left her with permanent injuries. She drives a modified motorcycle, and struggles with her loss. She sees her Isla in both work and home situations and finds herself talking to her. She has soothed herself with alcohol, even as she feels guilt that she had a drink before driving the day of the accident.

The central character in this book though is Neve Maguire. Neve and her husband have recently made the decision to separate, but the day they chose to tell their teenage daughter Ash, they were the victim of a violent home invasion. 

Neve has retreated to the house she spent summers in, in the small town of Black Lake. She had a couple of close friends, Bee and Sandra, but the last summer she spent there was a disturbing one, and the secrets of that summer are gradually revealed over the course of the novel. 

Soon after Neve arrives, a neighbour is found dead in the lake, something that has personal significance to Neve. Jess is the lead officer on the case, and she finds herself being guided by her daughter's words. She is also following leads suggested by Neve's words and actions as she talks to her about the woman who died. 

This is an interesting new series, with lots of emotional situations, and some strange twists. 

I found it compelling to read, and the ending gives a hint towards further books in the series. 

The Western Wind

Finished September 5
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey

This historical novel is not your typical mystery. It takes place over four days in February 1491, in a small English village. The narrator is the local priest, and the main subject of the book is the supposed death by drowning of the village's wealthiest man. I say supposed because there is no body, only the tale of a witness, or maybe more than one witness.
The story is told in a backwards fashion with the most recent day appearing first, and the earlier days coming in reverse order. As the story begins, the dean is present, living in the dead man's house and looking into his death, looking for a reason, for a murderer even. He has told the priest to announce a system of long pardons given for all who make their confession in these four days before lent, a pardon of forty days. Another thing that is important to know is that just before the events of this book, the village had a wedding celebration for one of the women who married a man from a nearby village. She was the priest's younger sister, and his only family, and he genuinely misses her.
As we work backwards over these four days, we see the background of some of the village people: The victim, Thomas Newman; the priest and how he came to be where he is in life; Oliver Townshend and his wife, the couple that had sold off most of their land to Newman over the last few years; the dean's reasons for being in the village so soon after the death. Each of the things we learn adds to the information about Newman's death, the people in the village that he interacted with and who depended on him for their livelihoods, his relationship with the priest, and the priest's relationship with the various village people and the dean. All of these things help the reader to understand what happened, and why it happened and what has happened to bring us to the final day included here.
The information about the confessions is quite interesting, the priest implementing a degree of privacy for this purpose that was unusual for England at the time, based on information that Newman provided from his wider experience. I also found it highly unusual how much of this the priest shared with the dean, and what he withheld.
The writing is excellent and one gets a real sense of the village and the life lived there by the inhabitants, and the precariousness of it all. I found it engrossing.

Into the Water

Finished September 29
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, read by Laura Aikman, Sophie Aldred, Rachel Bavidge, Imogen Church, and Daniel Weyman

This suspense novel begins with a death. Nel, single mother of a teenage daughter, Lena, has been found dead in the river in a small English town. Nel and her younger sister Jules had grown up there, living in the Old Mill House, the same house that Nel and Lena live in now. Nel always overshadowed her sister, more outgoing and prettier than her. When Jules was only thirteen something came between the sisters, causing Jules to draw away from Nel. Now Jules must return to deal with her sister's death and take charge of Lena.
The death seems like a suicide, taking place in a spot known locally as the drowning pool, where women going back centuries have taken their own lives. Nel was obsessed with the river and the women, and was planning to write a book about it. One of the stories that the reader becomes aware of is the deliberate drowning of a seventeenth-century girl who was suspected of being a witch. Another is a woman who drowned herself shortly after the first World War, after killing her husband who had returned from the war a changed and difficult man. More recently the local policeman's mother had supposedly drowned herself after a love affair gone wrong when he was only a boy, and Lena's best friend Katie had drowned herself for no explicable reason just a few months ago, filling her pockets with stones.
The police brass are eager to close the case quickly, but there's a new policewoman in town and as she begins talking with the locals and getting a feel for the various players, more inconsistencies come to light. Lena and Jules have both noticed the absence of Nel's bracelet, a bracelet that belonged to her mother and that she wore constantly. Katie's mother is still looking for answers, and for someone to blame. As both Jules and the policewoman make headway, the question arises of whether the drowning pool has drawn women who see no other choice or men who see a way to get rid of troublesome women.
I liked this novel better than her first, and found the tie to historical cases interesting. Things are always what they seem and this town has more than its share of secrets.